Why doesn’t the Lord answer my prayers if I have prayed and fasted many days and nights for almost a year?

My family has been struggling with financial problems for a while, due to my dad being unemployed. I have fasted and prayed many days and nights along with the rest of my family and nothing has happened for almost a year, Why isn’t the Lord answering my prayers?

Sarah.

Dear Sarah,

It is natural for us to request the Lord to solve all our problems, and it is also appropriate that we pour out our hearts to Him seeking His intervention. However, that fact that our prayers are not answered according our own time frame does not mean that they have not been heard, nor that the appropriate time of the Lord they will be answered.

On the last day of November of 1838 Joseph Smith had been court marshaled and condemned to be shot the following morning. General Alexander W. Doniphan refused to carry out the order saying that it was cold-blooded murder. This frightened the general in command of the mob, which was expelling the saints from the state of Missouri; so they imprisoned the prophet and others in Liberty jail. The whole Church prayed for his release. On March 20 of the following year, while still in prison, the Prophet poured out his soul to the Lord, pleading for his release. You can read his prayer in the first part of D&C 121. The Lord answered his prayer, but didn’t immediately release him from prison; rather, he gave him some very sage advise–

My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands. Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job. And they who do charge thee with transgression, their hope shall be blasted, and their prospects shall melt away as the hoar frost melteth before the burning rays of the rising sun (D&C 121:8-11).

And from that extremely difficult experience came some of the most marvelous and profound revelations in the restoration.

The prophet made two unsuccessful attempts at escape before he was finally released. Was the Lord indifferent to his pleas, or was Joseph being trained and schooled by the things that he was required to suffer? The road through mortality was not designed as an easy path, but as a proving ground, where we will be confronted with opposition and where our faith will be tested. But the Lord has given us this promise

Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord (D&C 98:4=3).

So don’t feel that the Lord has not heard your prayers nor that He will not answer them in such a way that the deprivations that you now are suffering will be converted into blessings for you and your family. We must have faith, patience and full confidence that the Lord will do his work in His own way. If, on the other hand we lose faith, we may forfeit the blessings that otherwise would be ours.

Gramps

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Why doesn't the Lord answer my prayers if I have prayed and fasted many days and nights for almost a year? - Ask Gramps - Q and A about Mormon Doctrine

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Gramps

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My family has been struggling with financial problems for a while, due to my dad being unemployed. I have fasted and prayed many days and nights along with the rest of my family and nothing has happened for almost a year, Why isn't the Lord answering my prayers?

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